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brain teaser of the week archive 1999

january to september

another year of past teaser of the weeks, answers, and winners

week of september 29th 1999

teaser:

5 3 7 8 9
2 6 4 1 x
8 0 2 0 4

what is x?

answer:

x=5
 winners:

cary faulker, pa

jennifer chavez, oh

markan dahbar, banglore india

week of september 22nd 1999

teaser:

a family of five ( father, mother, lisa, brad, and emily) each have a dog of
their own. they need to cross the river but have a
severe problem. there is a boat which holds a maximum of three living things
(people or dogs). the dogs are extremely
sensitive and cannot be left alone with another family member unless their
owner is present. not even
momentarily. they can left be alone with each other, however. the crossing would
be impossible except for the fact that
lisa's dog is trained to drive the boat. how many trips are necessary to
get everyone across the river?

answer:

11 trips

winners:

pantra nguyen

john davis

cary faulker, pa

week of september 15th 1999

teaser:

who has the heart of the dragon? (and, who's the grandpa?) these guys range in
age from 5 to 65 and rank from white to
black belt. they all have a favorite martial artist and work a different
weapon. they, also, each exhibit a specific talent
commonly found in the animal kingdom. to assist in organizing your thoughts the
five of them live in a row. here are the facts.
1. the bruce lee fan is a red belt.

2. the person who trains with the dagger has the speed of a
snake.

3. the child has a green belt.

 4. the person who uses fighting fans lives in the house next to the
person who has the balance of a crane.

5. the white belt throws stars.

6. the mom idolizes steven segal.

7. the "gracies" fan lives in the first house on the

left(your left).

8. the green belt lives to the immediate right(your right) of

the orange belt.

9. the person with the strength of a tiger watches a chuck

norris sitcom.

10. the teenager lives in the middle house.

11. the person with the jackie chan movie collection swings
nunchukkas.

12. the father carries a staff.

13. the person in the house next to the house where the person who has the grace
of a gazelle lives, owns throwing stars.

14. the black belt lives next door to the "gracies"

fan.

answer:

movie collection has the heart of a dragon

the grandpa throws stars!

winners:

paul parnet

jack williams, ohio

pantra nguyen, vietnam

week of august 29th 1999

teaser:

this is a most unusual paragraph. how quickly can you find out what is so
unusual about it? it looks so ordinary you'd think
nothing was wrong with it---and in fact, nothing is wrong with it. it is unusual
though. why? study it, think about it, and you
may find out. try to do it without coaching. if you work at it for a bit it will
dawn on you. so jump to it and try your skill at
figuring it out. good luck --don't blow your cool.

answer:

the entire paragraph does not contain the letter "e"!

winners:

jd meyers, orlando fl

davic van somme, germany

danny carter, az

week of august 22nd 1999

teaser:

you find yourself standing in a square white room. on two opposing walls there
are doors; along the remaining two walls stand
2 fierce looking man-sized robots. opening one door will set you free. opening
the other will result in instant death. the robots
have been programmed to answer just one question. one robot can only lie; the
other can only tell the truth. you can ask only
one question to one robot in order to get free. if you ask no question within 5
minutes, the robots will attack and kill you. what
question do you ask what robot?

answer:

if you ask either robot "if i asked the other robot which door to open to get me
out of the room, which door would he tell me
to use? .....then i would use the opposite door i was told.... here is why.... 1)
if i asked the truth telling robot, then he would
tell me what the other robot would say, which would be a lie. so the door would
be wrong. 2) if i asked the lying robot, then
he would lie about what the other robot would say, which would be the truth. so
the lying robot would still indicate the wrong
door

winners:

jason w., maryland

john davis, florida

shutz paul, el salvador

week ofaugust 12th 1999

 teaser:

#1 teaser ($100): "brothers and sisters, i have none, but this mans
father is my fathers son"

who is he talking to?

#2 teaser ($50): four men a b c d have to cross a bridge at night.they have only
one torch light.at the most two men can
cross the bridge together.torchlight is needed every time to cross the
bridge.torchlight can't be thrown back etc. a-takes 1
minute to cross b-takes 2 minutes to cross c-takes 5 minutes to cross d-takes 10
minutes to cross if two people cross
together,time taken to cross the bridge will be of the slower person. q;can
all four cross the bridge in 17 minutes? or
q;minimum time required by all four to cross the
bridge?

#3 teaser ($100):
planetx fingers
===============
ok; 7% is really 7/100; a 7% discount on $1,000 is:
1000(.07) = 70, right?
and 7% = 7 "per cent" = 7 per "100", or 7 per 10^2;
in other words, our "100" is (fingers)^(hands),
right?
ya ya: big deal...

it is impossible to allow 3 consecutive discounts

(using our "per cent") and end up with exactly half
the amount we started with...but we can come close;
as example, here's what happens to $3,000 after
discounts of 10%, then 15%, then 35%:
10%: 3000 - 3000(10/100) = 3000 - 300.00 = 2700.00
15%: 2700 - 2700(15/100) = 2700 - 405.00 = 2295.00
35%: 2295 - 2295(35/100) = 2295 - 803.25 = 1491.75
...close to half; but we can only come close...

ok; on planet x, (fingers)^(hands) is not 100; call it

k;
k is such that 3 different discounts can be applied as
shown above, and the result is an exact reduction by
half.
the number of hands on the x-residents is at a minimum;
x-residents have 3 hands, and have more than 1 finger per
hand.
find the 3 discounts, using the minimum case.

answer:

#1: he is talking about himself

#2: first a & b cross. total 2 minutes then a goes back. total 3 minutes c & d
then cross. total 13 minutes b comes back. total
15 minutes a & b go across. total 17 minutes

#3: um, does anybody even care to know. if so email me

 winners:

none

week of july 6th 1999

teaser:

starting with two numbers, rearrange the letters that spell each number to create
two new numbers. the sum of the first two is
equal to the sum of the second two. what are the numbers
?

answer:

4,11 and 6,9

winners:

none

week of june 30th 1999

teaser:

a man is in a room with no doors and no windows. all he has is a

stick. how does he get out?

answer:

you take the stick break it in half, two halfs make a

whole

you crawl through the hole and your out! (play on

words!

winners:

j.j. baker, il

james scruton

kevin roberts

week of june 23rd 1999

 teaser:

my first is one hundred

my second is a lion,my third is an irishman

my fourth is a eygptian god .................who am

i?.

answer:

cleopatra

winners:

winner wishes to remain anonymous

week of june 9th 1999

teaser:

to conserve the contents of a 16oz. bottle of tonic, a castaway adopts the

following procedure. on the first day he drinks 1 oz.
of tonic and then refills the bottle with water; on the second day he drinks
2oz. of the mixture and then refills the bottle with
water;on the third day he drinks 3oz. of the mixture and then again refills the
bottle with water. he continues this procedure until
the bottle is empty. how many ounces of water did he drink altogether? he does
not drink from the bottle if there is no tonic in
it.

answer:

120 ounces

winners:

random winner: db powell of nj

siddhartha mathur

randomswp@aol.com

week of june 1st 1999

teaser:

a soldier has been captured by the enemy and is sentenced to die. his captors
say: "you may make a statement. if you tell a
 lie, you will be shot. if you tell the truth, you will be hanged." he makes a
statement and goes free. what could he have said?

answer:

he said "you will shoot me." if they shoot him, then he told the truth and should
have been hung. if they hang him, he told a lie
and should have been shot. with no other choice, they let
him go.

winners:

john flagn, ny

seth klassen

dennis borris

week of may 28th 1999

teaser:

there is a boy. he puts one arm on the box. when he wakes up, there is
nothing. what happened?

answer:

he was dreaming. sorry that was a pretty dumb teaser!

winners:

fatal error

week of may 21st 1999

teaser:

enclosed in a room are two computers with intelligence (imagine them as c3po if
you will). however, one is a computer who
always tells lies and the other always tells the truth. now, also in this room
are two doors, with one being the exit to this room
and the other leading to a bomb behind it which will detonate once you open the
door. if you were to ask just one question to
one of these computer (not knowing which is the which computer), how are you able
to get the computer to direct you to the
exit?

answer:

i ask either of the computers, "if i asked the other computer which door to open
to exit, which door should it answer to open?"
and then i would open the opposite door. in this way i can find the correct door
because: 1) if i'm talking to the truth telling
computer, then it will tell me what the other computer would say, which would be
a lie. so the door indicated would be wrong.
2) if i'm talking to the lying computer, then it will lie about what the other
computer would say, which would be the truth. so the
lying computer would still indicate the wrong door.

winners:

joseph jordan, ny

j. marcus ziegler

week of may 9th 1999

teaser:

two men were being tried for murder. the jury found one man guilty and the other
innocent. the judge turned to the guilty man
and said, "even though your guilt has been established, the law compels me to
set you free." how could such a bizarre
judgement occur?

answer:

the two men were simese twins joined at the hip. the judge couldn't sentence the
innocent man (the head and body attached to
the other) to prison and so had to let them both go
free.

winners:

brendan johsnn, ny

brent hale

steve tipton

week of may 2nd 1999

teaser:

there are ten rockets. the commander has asked you to arrange the rockets in
five rows of four. how do you do it?

answer:

arrange the rockets in the shape of a star

 winners:

ankur sansanwal

ipotapen@lausd.k12.ca.us

dennis the man borris

week of april 1st 1999

teaser:

> four men sat down to play,

> they played all night 'till the break of day,
> they played for gold and not for fun with separate scores
for everyone.
> when they came to square accounts,
> they all had made quite fair amounts.
> can you the paradox explain,
> if no one lost, how could all gain?

answer:

they weren't playing against each other, but rather agains

t a house, in
a casino setting. the house lost and is not included in the
collective
of the four men.

winners:

secilla frank, ny

richard_orvis@warroad.k12.mn.us

tchronis@tb.tele-bank.com

week of march 24th 1999

teaser:

what is greater than god

more evil than the devil
poor people have it
rich people need it
and if you eat it, you die?

answer:
 nothing

winners:

winners list lost as site went down (that is why also there was
a week skipped)

week of march 17th 1999

teaser:

on a train, smith, robinson, and jones are the fireman, brakeman, and engineer,
but not repsectively. also aboard the are
three businessmen who have the same names: a mr. smith, a mr. robinson, and a mr.
jones.

1) mr. robinson lives in detroit.

2) the brakeman lives exactly halfway between chicago and detroit.
3) mr. jones earn exactly $20,000 per year.
4) the brakeman's nearest neighbor, on of the passengers, earns exactly three
times as much as the brakeman.
5) smith beats the fireman at billiards.
6) the passenger with the same name as the brakeman lives in chicago.
question: who is the engineer?

answer:

smith is the engineer, because:

the brakeman's nearest neighbor can not be mr. robinson,

since
mr. robinson lives in detroit and the brakeman is halfway
from
there to chicago. the brakeman's nearest neighbor can not
be
mr. jones because 20,000 is not evenly divisible by 3.
the
brakeman's nearest neighbor is one of those 3 passengers,
so he
must be mr. smith.

the passenger with the same name as the brakeman lives in

chicago,
and we know that mr. robinson and mr. smith do not live in
chicago,
so mr. jones must live in chicago, so the brakeman must be
jones.

so smith is either the fireman or the engineer, but since

smith
beats the fireman at billiards, he can not be the
fireman, so he
must be the engineer.
 winners:

peter nu, maine

frederick langheim

tom mcintyre

week of march 10th 1999

teaser:

you are ill and travelling down a road to the hospital. you
reach a
fork in the road and find a pair of identical twin boys
standing
there. one of the twins always tells the truth and the
other twin
always lies. you are allowed to direct only one question
to one of
the twins, and as such you will be assured of the correct
road to the
hospital. what is your question and to whom?

answer:

you ask either of the twins "if i asked your twin which path to take to get to
the hospital, which way would he tell me to go?"
and then i would go in the opposite path of the one i'm
told. because:

1) if i'm talking to the truth telling twin, then he will tell me what his twin
would say, which would be a lie. so the direction
indicated would be wrong.

2) if i'm talking to the lying twin, then he would lie about what his twin would
say, which would be the truth. so the lying twin
would still indicate the wrong path.

winners:

john davis, co

tom mcintyre

denis borris, ontario, canada, for the millionth time

week of march 3rd 1999

teaser:
 what is something the storeowner doesn't want,
the customer doesn't want,
and the customer doesn't look at?

answer:

a coffin, i know it's a pretty dumb answer to what seems like a

cool teaser but it works

other unofficial answers include insurance and the

bills

winners:

winner was vani gupta, tampa, second week in a row

alaa aboul khair from cairo, egypt.

denis borris, ontario, canada

second chance winner: arcadefun@aol.com

week of february 24th 1999

teaser:

many years from now, two classmates meet on a street.

the following is part of their discussion.

student 1: yes, i'm married and have three wounderful

children.

student 2: that's great! how old are they?

student 1: well, the product of their ages is 36.

student 2: hmm. that doesn't tell me enough. give me

another clue.

student 1: ok. the sum of their ages is the number on that

building across the
street.

student 2: (after a few minutes of thinking with the aid of

pencil and paper)
ah ha! i've almost got it but i still need another
clue.

student 1: very well. the oldest one has red hair.

student: i've got it!

 what were the ages of the children of student 1?

answer:

the answer is that their ages are 9, 2, and 2. there are

eight ways that 36
can be factored into 3 numbers (ages), and of these, only 9,2,
2 and 1,6,6
share the same sum. that there is an oldest rules out 1,6,6,
giving the answer.

winners:

winner was vani gupta, tampa

tom mcintyre

dave edwards, poughkeepsie

second chance winner: jd powers of cali, third week

week of february 17th 1999

teaser:

a man is in another country and is found guilty in a court

of law. as he
is being locked into his cell the warden is talking to
him:
we don't have the concept of parole here, and we have
indeterminate
sentences. you will be incarcerated until you end your
sentence yourself.
you will notice that there is a combination lock on the
inside of your
cell door. if you can dial the correct combination, you can
open thedoor
and leave. the numbers on the dial go from 1 to 100 and it
is a five
digit combination. you will have to be smart in the way you
try the
combinations, however, because even if you could dial a
number in every
second, it would take you a 100 years to get the right
combination. we
are not without compassion. we have given you everything you need to know to
discern the correct combination. the warden
ended with "good luck". and closed the cell door.
the man tried a couple combinations that obviously didn't
work and then
sat down to think about the problem. after a few minutes he
did some
math calculations on a sheet then stood up and dialed a
combination into the lock.
 the door opened and he was set free.

what is the combination?

answer:

combination - 6,30,72,1,1

if it would take 100 years to find the combinatiion, that

is equal to
3,153,600,000 seconds (assuming a 365 day year - no leap
years)

if it takes 1 second per digit, that's 5 seconds per

attempt.

that means it would take 630,720,000 attempts to find the

combination.

assuming that the attempts are made in ascending numberical

order
(1 1 1 1 1; 1 1 1 1 2...)

the following represents how many attempts it would take to

try each
combination - i.e. it would take 100 attempts if the 1st
four digits
are constant and you only changed the 5th, and it would take
10,000
attempts if the 1st three digits are constant and you only
changed the
4th and 5th

digit # attempts

1 10,000,000,000

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